Rs 240b water gone down the sea

IT is natural that all attention of the Government is devoted to the devastations caused by unprecedented floods that affected more than 20 million people and damaged or destroyed over one million houses in the four Provinces, the other important aspect of the floods which is presently not being given due consideration is that we also lost 40 Million Acre Feet of precious water.

A research based report by Pakistan Observer’s Correspondent published on Wednesday said that a massive quantity of 40 Million Acre Feet of water has gone downstream Kotri into the sea during the ongoing flooding season and much more is yet to go. That means we have wasted huge quantum of water equal to five or six fully filled dams of Kalabagh reservoir size. This water would have contributed about Rs 240 billion in terms of generation of hydel power and watering to important crops for which the Provinces remain at loggerheads throughout the year. We think after the flood emergency is over, there must be a thorough study and responsibility fixed over the failure of successive governments for not making a genuine effort to build the much needed dams. Water is being rated as a liquid gold for the future in view of warning by experts that there would be scarcity of water in the coming decades. Due to their myopic approach, mental bankruptcy and lack of vision some so-called politicians, who cannot win a single seat in Parliament have been opposing the construction of Kalabagh and some other small but key dams. Today those politicians are sitting comfortably in their palatial houses and are silent over the plight of the people who have been made shelterless. We think people should make those politicians answerable over these losses. Experts are of the considered opinion that had there been Kalabagh Dam today, Southern Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan would have been saved from the havoc played by River Indus. Similarly about a dozen medium size dams in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan would have prevented floods there. We would therefore impress upon the political leadership that even now they should sit together, get briefings from expert and agree to a long-term policy for construction of big and medium size dams for the safety of people from natural calamity and the precious water thus stored should be used for irrigation of vast virgin lands and generation of cheap electricity.

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on Aug 27 2010. Filed under Blog, Editorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.